*OFFICIAL* Alienware Area-51M R2 Owner's Lounge

Umm...
1. Pretty sure under the LCD is the Tobii Eye Tracker, is it not?
2. What benefit would having an air intake on the LCD? the fans and components are not there.

Or do you mean the R1 has a hidden air intake at the hinge area between LCD and base?? Like the Macbooks and Razer Blades. Could you share a photo of it please? since no online media source/review has ever mentioned it before.

 

Dell designed DGFF graphics with VRMs passive cooled on the opposite side of the card. Not beside the graphics die and cooled by the heatsink as all other notebooks. Fans need to pull air from bottom of panel to be able to flush air around the small passive cooled heatspreader for the power delivery.

This cooling design was one of the reasons several 2080 went up to hardware heaven.

 

If it’s like the desktop versions, the super edition has the much faster GDDR6 vram that can overclock to like 9000+ MHz. This makes a big difference that isn’t shown in reviews because nvidia underclocked the new vram to avoid 2080ti territory

 

Oh good to know, but I meant on the R1, are there hidden air intakes between the screen bezel and base? like the Macbooks and Razer Blade?

 

Yeah, between bottom of the panel and KB. You find the design solution if you download and read the manual.

 

Thanks, I see it now from here: https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/alienware-17-area51m-laptop_service-manual_en-us.pdf
Looks like the m15 and m17 have them too, so I'm assuming the Area 51m R2 will have both air intakes in the crack and above the keyboard. Also while looking at the keyboard bracket setup of the R1...I have a sneaking suspicion they may have changed the keyboard layout to chiclet style to accomodate for a smaller keyboard bracket to make more airflow from the top for the R2. Just a theory though.

Also in the cutout of the Area 51m R2, what is this component? (Circled in black, I don't see it in the R1 diagrams.)

 

The passive cooled heatspreader for the DGFF graphics. Slightly different in shape vs the one for 2080 in R1.

 

It’s the DGFF itself, however, on that render they “moved it” to the right (outward) of the laptop in the exploded view so you can see the entire card (it would be partially obstructed from view otherwise)

They did the same for the processor, which can be seen “floating” to the right of the motherboard, instead of on the (downward facing) socket, where the bracket is also partially blocked from view by the palm rest

R2 will likely only have the hexagonal ones around the alien head power button...

I’ve torn down the R1 completely, there could have been the same air intake cutouts above the keyboard on the R1 as on the R2, there’s nothing but plastic there.

I think they came up with that for the m15/17 after the 51m, and likely saw that it was a good move given the passive heatsink being choked by the barely available airflow from the tiny intakes in the display hinge.

 

the big grill at the top is Ideal for collecting dust and possibly if water droplets get there, it might short the hell out of the laptop.

 

The vent is the just about full length under the LCD hinge. It is well hidden without flash photography.

 

Its nothing new, and been proven that it helps airflow and thermals before on other laptops. The newer ASUS Zephyrus lineup all have it, Acer Predator Triton series have it. The Alienware m15 and m17 have it and nobody has complained so far.

 

Depends on how pressure is set up by the fans. I'd imagine they wanted to have negative pressure to pull air from top over the DGFF VRMs.

 

I'll ask my dell supplier to source me a 51m r2 dgff card, I really wanna see if it can be put inside the 51m r1, I don't mind drilling screw holes into the heatsink as long as it doesn't go through a heat-pipe

I just hope the output layout and pinout is exactly the same, knowing dell though it's not happening. What a waste of potential.

 

They're going to need more than a Super "Upgrade", 2933mhz memory and 300Hz panel to get my attention. How about fix what was wrong with the first one instead of throwing parts that have larger numbers but ultimately equal next to nothing.

Sorry to sound fired up here, the 51m is a work of art aesthetically (IMO) but was a huge disappointment to use. I understand this is NBR and heavy tweaking is normal so those that have made their 51m work at its best are awesome for doing so. For me, the only SKU I could recommend was the 9700K and 2070 and that's relative performance we can get elsewhere.

Unless they recreate their thermal solution, I'm not sure how this competes with the X170 now that Clevo made a good looking Big Boy machine.

 

Memory below specs - fixed
No UHD/240HZ+ - fixed
GPU burnout - (apparently fixed) Vapor Chamber
No XMP - fixed
Flagile Coat - fixed

*** BUT you need to buy another laptop that costs ~5K USD for it.... they shouldn't leave r1 users like that. ***
AND we don't know if it'll handle 10900K OCed, most likely no at full power.

Let's wait and see, someone inside aw told me a possibility to SUPER upgrade to r1, but i don't believe it anymore.

 

PFFFFFFFFFTTT!!! Shea, right. Not gonna happen man, let’s not even start giving people hope.

 

Are these fixes actually confirmed?

I mean XMP specifically

I know #1 and #4 are fixed but #2 we don't know yet since these are new GPUs

 

according to the R2 options spec sheet XMP ram is supported.

 

Cool, last time I checked this sheet wasn't up.

Now this can also be misleading, here's why:

The current 1.8.1+ BIOS on the R1 technically supports 2933Mhz RAM now and can run 3000/3200Mhz apparently as well but only the specified RAM that AW sells with the machine. Many people are flashing their RAM so the manufacturer and model matches the AW one in order to get those speeds. Otherwise we're stuck at 2400Mhz.

Can't wait to see if this is still true on the R2 lol

 

Put it this way...

GPU burnout - (apparently fixed) *Vapor Chamber*
The Vapor chamber didn't help the new AW thin line... At least not for the Cpu that still run 100C http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...-r3-owners-lounge.833030/page-3#post-11021117

No XMP - *fixed.*
Yeah halfway. XMP profile top out at 3200MHz, but you''ll lose it once you add in more than two sticks. And not fun with XMP if you are locked out with high timings.

Flagile Coat - *fixed*
We will have too see after a couple of months. White will still be disgusting after some time use.

 

I hear ya on all of this buddy. I was lucky when I had mine and never experienced any of this. It’s a shame since Alienware was my first gaming laptop back in the day and I thought this was gonna be a return to form. I was able to upgrade that old laptop for two generations of GPUs so this proprietary nonsense they’re running is just sad. But I did call they would not be giving us any upgrades to the next gpu. Sadly I was right. It just isn’t the way it used to be my friend.

 

Regarding the vapor chamber, I have high hopes for the R2 even while seeing the m15/m17 R3 results. Looking at the cooling modules of the m15/m17 R3 the vapor chamber is tiny and still relies on the heatpipes to transfer the heat. It's almost as if they slapped a tiny one on just so they could market vapor chamber for the m15/17 R3. On 51m R2, the vapor chamber actually looks substantial and has enough space to genuinely dissipate a lot of heat. That being said, I'm delidding it and pasting it with liquid metal since I believe Alienware's cooling modules aren't the sole culprit, it's the thermal paste as well.

 

yes, it is. Except for GPU burnout. That's why i said APPARENTLY fixed, but vapor chamber for GPU is true.

We are talking about area-51m, not about thin m17, and not for CPU, since vapor chamber is for GPU only. So there's no points on your link.

btw i agree XMP is halfway.

 

What I said... Dell added Vapor Chamber for the siblings and this did almost nothing to avoid the dreaded 100C. This is facts! And remember copper pipes will still be a part of the Area-51m refresh cooling. 25% more cores for Cpu and the raised power limits will increase needed cooling capacity (Dell still use Unified heatsink design). And the new designed VC whatever it is in the m17 models or Area... All of them is designed and engineered by the same inhouse engineers who think 100C is the golden rule. Maybe you hope for some magic. I don't know

 

I’m a little confused. In the m51 R2 I thought the vapor chamber was for the CPU? And the GPU was using the heat pipes?

 

Vapor Chamber for Cpu for both the thin line and Area-51m.

It looks like Area refresh will get Vapor chamber cold plate combined together with heatpipes for the graphics. Pict from Dell's press release
Alienware Area-51m r2 - Alienware Arena


And not sure how valid this is. Could be a custom made. Not sure.

 

It's extremely sad that only one brand makes just one Big Boy machine. The concept of excellence only exists in folklore, fairytales, and the minds of those that live in a fantasy world. Things could be so much better if there was just a smidgen of effort on the part of the manufacturers. Most of them don't try because they don't care. But, why should they when consumers seem to be happy to keep throwing money at broken garbage?

 

SCOFF!!! R2 STARTS AT $4,749.99 USD. That’s not a typo. FOUR thousand.

Edit: lolwut? Trying to select options, the lowest priced one costs $5,028.99. They tack on premium support and you can’t take it off!!! This tells me they are pretty much banking on R2s burning up and they want to have their a$$e$ covered to be able to repair them under warranty and avoid all the heat we gave them for the R1.

 

Not surprised by the price. Dells site is broken on and off today but when I did see the R2 in Canada one was 5800 before taxes and other was 6800. Only 2 options for config and ONLY lunar light colour. That’s a tad bit on the premium side for price but sorta expected from dell/Alienware.

 

Dove into the service manual to see how/where they managed to put 2 more M.2 drives in the R2 (for a total of 4!). Turns out they made this sweet little interposer board:

 

Now imagine if they had heatsink only L0L

seems im not the one who expect magic

 

Heatsink in service manual differs (looks weaker) than the advertising pic. Notice the absurd lack of heat pipes!!!

Also, on the service manual, they don’t circle one of the screws you need to remove (missing yellow circle in the CPU mounts). I can already see people bending their heatsink lol...





Edit: Looks like the manual was made with a lower config, card is missing VRAM so is likely the 1660Ti (maybe?)

 

I really hope the top heatsink is the final one, since that’s the one advertised...

 

R2 BIOS does have a section to enable XMP mode... those bastards!

 

UH OH! Looks like we have a heat sink conspiracy already! Juuuuuuuuust like last year.
I'm guessing the one in the manual is for a lower end configuration like a 2070 super or lower maybe. Kinda how they did last time.
Not gonna lie that's disappointing. I'd be looking at the Clevo X170 alot more closely with this information though.

 

It's available to order now from Dell but only 4K screens. The 300hz screens will be available at the end of June.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...rationid=743dd334-09ba-45ba-822a-f054248b7a60

But this looks interesting: 2TB (2x 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD) RAID0 [Boot] + 2TB (2x 1TB PCIe M.2 SSD) Non-Raid [Storage]

Does that mean it has 4 SSD m.2 slots?

Edit:

One M.2 2230 slot for WiFi and Bluetooth combo card
• Two M.2 2230/2280 slots for solid-state drive
• Two optional M.2 2280 slots on Sled board

They use an adapter to support the additional 2x m.2 2280 (standard sized M.2)

 

Bye bye 2.5 in drive...

Enviado desde mi GM1913 mediante Tapatalk

 

You will still get the 2.5" option if you config it for a traditional harddrive, you will only lose it (get a interposer board with 2x nvme slots instead) only if you opt for a 3 or 4 ssd(s) configuration

 

Service Manual and User's Guide added to the OP

 

And goodbye 4 ram slots. More and more equal it’s thinner sisters.

 

Yes! You’ll pick between HDD or the interposer board to get 4 total M.2 slots

They likely realized they can’t manage higher RAM speeds having 4 slots too, lazyyy mobo design!!!

Indeed it looks like diff heatsink per config. The GPU in the service manual can be seen with less VRAM, so the manual was likely made with a low end config.

 

Still capped at XMP 3200MHz (32GB). More than that means lower ram speed. Hope you don’t need Dell’s proprietary ram specs for XMP.

 

Another interesting thing about the GPU seen here is that it has different screws configuration to the (assumed) 2080 Super heatsink. So it looks like different cards have different posts and screw mounts?

 

Guess they really are up to their old tricks already. Gotta make sure they can charge top dollar for upgrade kits since you will require a new heatsink.

 

Is there a good alternative for this laptop? I waited for 3 months before deciding on this. I just can't justify spending nearly 7000 dollars (Canadian) on a laptop.

 

Clevo X170

 

Wow. Why are so much cheaper?

 

The prices will come down, just don't buy day 1. There are only 2 configs even available right now, and they are both ludicrous. Nothing without 4k and minimum of 2tb SSD storage? No thanks....the RAM and SSD options drive the cost up FAST from Dell. Wait a few weeks if you don't need something right this second and wait for reviews and prices to come down. No one should be buying before reviews anyways, on anything.

 

This is true. I guess I should wait. Thanks. But it's nice to know there are more options other than alienware.

 

yea going with clevo this time